Chapter Four
Jonas slowly pulled his car over to the side of the road at the cop’s direction, muttering words under his breath that Landon, who was sitting in the passenger seat, didn’t want to hear. Behind them, Max was involuntarily fading from sight.
“Great!” Jonas grumbled, his voice hard. “This is just great. Just what I need.”
The undercover cop parked his car on the side of the road behind Jonas.
“My mother is going to kill me, just so you know,” he announced to Landon and Max as he rolled down the window. “Dead. She told me she would, if I got in trouble while driving again. So take a good look because this is the last time you’ll see me.”
The cop slowly walked to the window. “License and registration,” he ordered. His voice—surprisingly enough, given the circumstances in which he pulled the Subaru over—wasn’t mean, but it was commanding.
Jonas closed his eyes for a brief moment, and then reached over to get the registration card out of the dashboard compartment. He pulled his license out of his wallet.
Of course, his power was useless in situations like this. He couldn’t just freeze time and drive away—what would something like that look like to the little camera that cop cars had on their dashboards? Maybe they’d end up on C.O.P.S. or Unsolved Mysteries if he ever decided to pull that move—but other than that, what stinking good did it do…?
He looked up at the officer innocently, his hand steadily holding out the papers. However, the cop’s eyes were dazed and frozen as he stared beyond Jonas and into Landon’s eyes.
The expression on the other boy’s face stunned Jonas for a moment. He had never really witnessed Landon’s power before, since he refused to use it most of the time. Landon’s eyes—a steely, mysterious gray—were intense and his face was expressionless.
Seconds later, the cop was walking away without another word.
“Thanks,” Jonas said simply.
“No problem,” Landon replied, his stony expression gone. “The guy had already seen Max-the-Ghost back there, anyway.”
“It’s a nervous reaction!” Max argued in his own defense. “I can’t help it. But hey, you didn’t hurt him...so does that mean...well, if Jordan ever finds out about me...”
“For the last time, I’m not erasing some girl’s memory because of your stupidity,” Landon sighed.
“You’ll erase a cop’s memory because of Jonas’s stupidity,” Max grumbled.
Landon and Jonas exchanged glances and began to laugh hysterically. Jonas shoved the papers into the dashboard compartment and pulled back onto the road behind a black Mercedes, still laughing for no apparent reason with his best friends.
“That’s a really nice car,” Max mentioned seconds later, looking at the Benz in front of them. “See, if Landon would just play with a salesman’s mind, we could have one—”
Again, he was met by laughter as the car slowed to a stop at a red light. He rolled his eyes and joined in, knowing that sometimes his wants were totally unrealistic. Maybe it was a good thing Landon was the one with telepathy—out of the three, he had the most sensible head on his shoulders.
“Oh, God, is that Claire Horowitz in that car?” Jonas asked. Both Landon and Max turned to stare at the Mercedes.
“Yeah, that’s definitely their new car,” Landon confirmed. He lived across the street from the Horowitzes and couldn’t help but notice what was going on over there sometimes. “Her dad bought it a few days ago.”
“Who’s that girl in the back seat? Do you know her?” Jonas asked.
“No, I haven’t seen her before. Maybe she’s Mr. Horowitz’s new stepdaughter,” Landon guessed.
“That girl has some weird hair,” Max commented.
“Look who’s talking,” Landon replied. The girl’s hair was strange...but that wasn’t the only thing. Something about the car was attracting his eyes...
“Do either of you see that?” Jonas asked apprehensively. “It’s like...a light around the car.”
“I wasn’t going to mention that, because you’d probably think I was crazy,” Max said.
Landon narrowed his eyes and stared at the space around the car. Sure enough, a dim, golden haze surrounded the vehicle—but just the rear section. He’d never seen anything like it before.
“Some new feature, I bet,” Jonas suggested. “It’s pretty damn annoying, though.”
“Why don’t we follow them over to your house, Landon? We can watch them from the porch, maybe get introduced…”
“Sure, why not? It’s better than driving around all evening.”
After about ten minutes, they pulled on to a shady, tree-lined street. The houses were all very pretty and well-kept; every now and then they’d pass a neighbor mowing their lawn, kids playing in the front yards, or people gardening.
Jonas pulled the car to a stop in front of Landon’s medium-sized Craftsman house. Just as he moved the car into park, the black Mercedes turned into the driveway of the house across the street.
Max had one of his many looks on his face—a look that meant he was getting into one of his Excited States. “Guys. There was a girl in the back of that car. I mean, a girl that isn’t Claire Horowitz.”
“Wow, really? There was? I didn’t realize,” Jonas remarked sarcastically.
“Face it, man,” Landon began, sensing what his friend was getting to. “There’s not going to be one girl in the world who will accept us for who—or what—we are. I mean, seriously. If you were a girl and found out your boyfriend could read your mind, you’d probably dump him. It’s a scary thought,” he finished pessimistically.
Max shrugged. “Yeah, but a girl would probably be thrilled to know you’re telepathic,” he argued. “I mean, she’d never have to ask for anything again because, well, you’d know.”
“Landon sort of has a point. She could never keep anything from him—or at least she’d think she couldn’t. And in your case, she’d be afraid that you’d be following her around like a ghost.” Jonas’s face was serious as he broke the obvious news to Max.
The three boys walked across Landon’s front yard and sat on the porch discreetly—they hoped—watching the Horowitzes and the girl that had been in their car.
“Look at that body,” Max sighed as he stared. He was right—the new girl was tall and slim, willowy. “She looks like a Playboy model, or something.”
Jonas and Landon stared at Max, eyebrows raised.
“Okay, so her chest isn’t that big...”
“Whatever.” Jonas rolled his eyes. “Should we go over and say ‘hi’, or something? Offer to help with the luggage...?”
“Sure!” Max replied a bit too quickly.
“I don’t know,” Landon said. “Maybe they’re all tired from traveling, or something. I’m pretty sure we’ll have a chance to meet her later...”
“You’re so nervous sometimes,” Max scolded.
Landon let out a short laugh. “You’re telling me that I’m nervous with girls?” He shook his head and said, “Jordan, Jordan, Jordan, Jordan, Jordan!”
Max’s face turned red and he began to slowly fade out of sight.
“Now go talk to her, Ghost-boy!”
* * * * *
Ness tried to ignore the three boys that were watching her from across the street. However, they stayed in the corner of her vision as if they were enfolded in a bright golden light.
Maybe I should say ‘hi’ or something, she suggested to herself. But then again, she had never been too good with boys, and thought a second time on the matter.
To take her attention away from them, she turned and looked at the house in front of her. She couldn’t really remember living in a house before—just apartments. This house was nicer than any apartment she’d ever lived in: it was made of stone and was two stories high, with a big porch on the front and a two-car garage. Hedges lined the perimeter of the house along with beds of colorful flowers. Even more flowers drooped from hanging baskets on the porch, and the cushions on the wicker furniture placed there matched the flowers. The front yard was bigger than she could have imagined, and it was theirs—a yard all their own that they didn’t have to let anyone else use or trample.
“This is it. Say hello to new life.” Her mother came up beside her and put her arm around her daughter’s shoulder. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she gushed.
“Um, yeah,” Ness told her, trying to mask her real feelings about the beautiful house. “It’s…nice.”
“Why don’t you go inside and look around? I’ll come in a second to show you your room.”
Ness nodded and walked up the three wooden steps to the porch. Two heavy wooden doors with art glass windows in them barred her entrance in to the house. The long, square panes of glass reflected her odd coloring and beautiful face, but she ignored the reflection and tried to push open the right-hand door. It didn’t yield.
Quickly looking behind her—and absently noticing that the boys hadn’t left yet—Ness made sure that her mom and Cliff were far away. Claire and Charlie were nowhere to be found, either.
Good, she thought, and narrowed her eyes. She felt around with her mind for the bolt that held the door closed to intruders.
She smiled at the small click the lock made as it slid open and pushed on the brass knob again. The door opened and she stepped into a foyer with bright, decorative tiles covering the ground—and already she was amazed.
The ceiling in the foyer was high enough to accommodate the big windows on the front of the house. To her right was a curving staircase that led to the second floor hallway, which looked over the foyer and, Ness suspected—as it was directly in front of her—the living room. To the left, there was something big concealed under a white cloth.
“It’s so big, isn’t it?” her mother’s voice said from behind her.
“Big compared to the apartment,” Ness added. She was looking curiously at whatever was under the big white tarp as she spoke. “What is that, anyway?” Ness asked, pointing.
“It’s a good thing you asked,” Cliff said, coming in the door and putting down a suitcase in the foyer. He grabbed the tarp by one end and pulled it off, exclaiming “Viola!”
He revealed a white grand piano with a flourish.
Ness gasped and Cassandra’s eyes sparkled. “It’s beautiful,” she said, moving closer to it. Cliff put his arm around Cassandra’s shoulder. He started to go off on a tangent about the history of the piano, which didn’t surprise Ness—he had, after all, told her in the car that he had worked at an Auction House in the past and loved antiques.
How much money does this guy have? Ness asked herself as she picked up the suitcase Cliff put down moments ago.
“I’m going to find my room,” Ness told her mom, but the efforts were fruitless: Cassandra’s eyes were as large as saucers as she listened to Cliff’s speech about the piano. Ness rolled her eyes and hauled her biggest suitcase up the stairs. She could see through the window at the top of the two-story foyer that the three boys had left the porch on the opposite side of the street.
At the top of the short flight of stairs, she paused to look over the banister. Below her, the living room sat in all its glory, decorated in forest green and light brown. It was all very masculine, but she could see a few touches of her mother’s design here and there.
There were only two bedrooms on the second floor. The first one she went into was to the left of the stairs and could have only belonged to Claire. It was decorated in light pink and lavender, with very girly white furniture that had clothes scattered all across it. The other room, to the right of the stairs, barely looked as though it was lived in—but it was perfect.
Ness couldn’t help but smile when she saw the wrought iron and glass furniture that her mother had picked out for her, and the beautiful four-poster bed with gauzy red hangings all around it. There was a red quilt and tons of pillows on the bed, just the way Ness liked it.
She dropped the suitcase in the middle of the floor and slowly walked around the room, her fingers lightly brushing against the surface of the furniture. Her mother was right—she did love it.
There was a big window on one wall, and when she went to look out of it, there was a nice view of the pretty, tree-lined street. She noticed absently that the three boys across that street had left the porch.
“Hey, you found your room,” Cassandra said from the doorway.
Ness jumped at her voice. She hadn’t expected her mother to show up in the doorway.
Cassandra’s smile was huge as she joined Ness by the window. “This place is just great, isn’t it?”
“I guess so,” Ness said untruthfully. In reality, she was thrilled. Everything so far was absolutely perfect. Also, she was far, far away from whatever had attacked her in the airport bathroom...
On the plane to New York, Ness made a stiff resolution to practice her strange power. She didn’t know what happened at the airport today, but she wanted to be ready if it happened again.
Because, just as her mother said before, she clearly wasn’t like everyone else—and someone was after her.
Most of it, she didn’t understand. She could barely remember the strange encounter in the airport, but the thing that grabbed her had said, “I got one before she came into her power...Ganelon will be happy with his new prize.”
Because of her power, someone—or something, whatever a Ganelon was—wanted to kill her.
Suddenly, she wanted to tell her mother...but there was a strong feeling inside her, something telling her that whatever was happening was much bigger than her mother’s knowledge. She felt surprisingly calm and strong, despite the fact that something that wasn’t even human had come after her and could even still be looking for her.
Behind her, Cassandra had moved away from the window and was going on and on about their new lives. “Cliff is starting to make dinner. Oh, honey, just wait until you try his food. Even his sandwiches are to die for, and her makes some of the most colorful salads I have ever seen…”
Ness zoned out. Her mother’s talk about Cliff was too much for her to handle right now. Instead, she let her eyes travel to the house across the street.
There was a window that faced her new room directly; she was absent-mindedly gazing at it when a face slid into her view.
It was one of the three boys. She could see that he had dark hair at the roots, but everywhere else it was golden blonde. Their eyes met, and suddenly Ness felt as if she weren’t in the room anymore.
Oh, she was there, but it felt as if the two houses were much closer together. She could see the color of the boy’s eyes behind his glasses, which would, of course, be impossible to do at that distance. But there they were, right in front of her, and they were deep, deep blue with prominent flecks of golden brown.
Ness blinked, and the boy was gone.
She was now fully aware of the distance between the houses; the boy who had been there seconds before just wasn’t there anymore. Instead, she saw a faint gold haze.
One of the other boys jumped up and ripped the curtains closed, his eyes quickly flashing at her window. Ness spun around away from the sight, her breath short. What had just happened?
“…and when Claire’s friends get here—” Cassandra stopped her dreaming abruptly. “What’s wrong, Ness?” Cassandra stroked Ness’ hair. “You look scared.”
“No, no…I’m not scared.” Ness quickly looked out the window. “Um…the moving men are here.”
“Oh!” Cassandra’s face lit up. “I can’t wait to get the rest of our things in. Come on.”
“In a minute.” Ness watched Cassandra leave the room. She exhaled and leaned against the window, overwhelmed.
I like Ness, she's an interesting character, but I'd like to see her be a bit more enthusiastic about her new home, otherwise it just sounds like she's hard-to-please all the time etc...if you get what I mean.
), or just, overflowing? You may consider using a different word there.
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